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Nibbling every plumelet with its beak, the bird soon succeeds in restoring them to their proper place, and freeing them from whatever may cause inconvenience.

And now I think I see some of my young friends smile, and look at one another very knowingly. Ah! I know the cause they think they have caught Uncle William out; and if they had, he would be quite ready to listen to them, and to acknowledge he was wrong, as soon as he had discovered he was, and to thank them for setting him right. He ought to do so very heartily; for they would have rendered him a real service.

But this is not the case now. I see one observing a lark in a cage rubbing his breast with great eagerness, amongst the dry mould at the side of its withered turf; and pointing to the bird, there is the notion--and one after another is receiving it-that what I have stated must be an error; but I know the fact. I know, too, that barn-door fowls, and even chickens, rub themselves in the dust; but it is from the same cleanly feeling of which I have been speaking, and is supposed to free them from the insects that annoy them. Have you a cage-bird? If

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you would

keep it a long time healthy and active, cleanliness is absolutely necessary. "We love birds," you say: Bechstein remarks, "No, I reply; you love yourselves, not them, if you neglect to keep them clean."

If, then, a want of cleanliness will make you, my young friend, unlike the plants and animals around you, you should also remember that it will greatly injure your health, that most precious gift which those who lose it feel the value of every hour.

Here let me tell you something about that wonderful dwelling of the soul, which is called the body. In addition to perspiration, many ounces of matter go off from it every twentyfour hours. How, then, does it pass away? It is through the pores of the skin. Let its course be checked, and cold and inflammation ensue; and when the skin is so injured that it cannot act, death follows. How desirable is it, then, that the skin should be kept clean!

The skin, too, receives, or absorbs, as it is called, as well as carries off. Persons who have been shipwrecked, seeking the preservation of life in an open boat, and suffering greatly from thirst, have found that inward rage relieved, when a heavy shower has fallen

and made their clothes thoroughly wet; the skin has, in fact, drank it in.

When, then, the body is not cleanly, it may suffer from the perspiration being checked; it may suffer also from what is left on the skin being taken up, and carried into the general circulation; it is as if it took in poison. Can we, then, wonder that dirty people are so often unhealthy?

Try, then, and remember these facts; they may be of service to you through life. And while you think of outward cleanliness, forget not the unspeakable importance of inward purity; for without holiness none shall see the Lord, Heb. xii. 14.

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